James E. Goodby

Former Brookings Expert

James E. Goodby is a nonresident senior fellow with the Center for Northeast Asia Policy Studies at the Brookings Institution. Goodby is also a research fellow at the Hoover Institution at Stanford University, where he is working on a study of “a world without nuclear weapons” led by former Secretary of State George P. Shultz. He was a distinguished service professor at Carnegie Mellon University from 1989 to 1999 and is now professor emeritus.

Selected for the U.S. Foreign Service in 1952, Goodby rose to the rank of career minister in the Senior Foreign Service and was given five presidential appointments to ambassadorial rank.

During his Foreign Service career Goodby was involved as a negotiator or as a policy adviser in the creation of the International Atomic Energy Agency, the negotiation of the limited nuclear test ban treaty, START, the Conference on Disarmament in Europe, and cooperative threat reduction (the Nunn-Lugar program).

His awards include the Presidential Distinguished Service Award, the State Department’s Superior and Distinguished Honor Awards, and the Commander’s Cross of the Order of Merit of Germany. He was named a Distinguished Fellow of the U.S. Institute of Peace in 1992. He was the recipient of the inaugural Heinz Award in Public Policy in 1995. In 1996, he was awarded an honorary Doctor of Laws degree by the Stetson University College of Law.

James E. Goodby is a nonresident senior fellow with the Center for Northeast Asia Policy Studies at the Brookings Institution. Goodby is also a research fellow at the Hoover Institution at Stanford University, where he is working on a study of “a world without nuclear weapons” led by former Secretary of State George P. Shultz. He was a distinguished service professor at Carnegie Mellon University from 1989 to 1999 and is now professor emeritus.

Selected for the U.S. Foreign Service in 1952, Goodby rose to the rank of career minister in the Senior Foreign Service and was given five presidential appointments to ambassadorial rank.

During his Foreign Service career Goodby was involved as a negotiator or as a policy adviser in the creation of the International Atomic Energy Agency, the negotiation of the limited nuclear test ban treaty, START, the Conference on Disarmament in Europe, and cooperative threat reduction (the Nunn-Lugar program).

His awards include the Presidential Distinguished Service Award, the State Department’s Superior and Distinguished Honor Awards, and the Commander’s Cross of the Order of Merit of Germany. He was named a Distinguished Fellow of the U.S. Institute of Peace in 1992. He was the recipient of the inaugural Heinz Award in Public Policy in 1995. In 1996, he was awarded an honorary Doctor of Laws degree by the Stetson University College of Law.